Apple of your eye?
The iPad Smart, simple to use and, some say, the saviour of the publishing industry.
There's a lot of hype around the iPad, which is by no means the first device of its kind. But that shouldn't distract from the fact that it's a truly ground-breaking product.
Author: Richard Kilpatrick
03 Feb 2011 Tags: AppleIpadIntelligence
Apple's iPad was launched just months ago, but it has already been heralded as a game-changer, redefining the boundaries of mobile technology - resolving a 30-year battle between productivity and entertainment - and proclaimed the saviour of the publishing industry, delivering the sophistication of print directly to your screen.
And beyond the hyperbole, the sales figures suggest Apple has, once again, broken new ground with another must-have product you never knew you wanted.
In 1984, Apple won a new generation of users with the Macintosh, a product that quietly changed computing. Without that high-profile, style-driven computer, which introduced the graphical user interface, Windows might never have progressed beyond sitting on top of another operating system as a shell. The iPad may well prove as revolutionary, despite the fact that the concept is far from new. In fact, it's not even Apple's first attempt at the tablet computer.
John Sculley, notorious for ousting Steve Jobs as Apple's leader in the mid-1980s, once championed a concept called "Knowledge Navigator". The core of this was a user-friendly personal assistant, and if his visionary short films are to be believed, we're still a long way from the technology he wanted to see.
Newton, the first product of this concept, was launched on an unsuspecting world in 1993 and promptly flopped commercially. It was killed off in 1998 when Jobs returned to the helm.
Popular opinion held that Jobs' "Not Invented Here" attitude would ensure that no Apple PDA or tablet would surface for many years, yet the iOS family of devices lends some credence to Jobs' assertion that the technology and the market simply weren't mature enough.
Smartphone revolution
By the turn of the 21st century, PDA and mobile phone technologies were converging, and by 2005 it seemed consumers understood and were ready for the smartphone. The iPhone proved it, changing the market overnight and popularising the tablet device through the back door - the iPod Touch is one of the best PDA devices ever made, it's just not marketed as such.
You could be forgiven for thinking the iPad story should stop there - it's bulky and netbooks have tried, and largely failed, to ignite the market for portable computing.
Netbook manufacturers tried to make them more attractive by adding more and more features; all that did was push up the price and make them painfully slow to operate. Successful tablet computers have traditionally been rugged systems designed for professionals in the field - weatherproofed and made for use with gloves - while laptops have served the needs of most other users.
But the iPad takes a different approach. It's not powerful; it offers fast access to the information most users want by using an efficient operating system and applications developed purely for the target device. With more than four million units sold at the time of writing, Apple can safely be said to have "nailed it" - it has launched the first product of its kind that has captured the public mindset.
Familiarity with smartphones ensured that consumers no longer worry about where the files are and whether they can multitask. They've accepted they don't need to know what the appliance is doing, as long as it does it.
Design-literate types can enjoy the tactile solidity of the metal and glass construction and the lush, wide-viewing angle IPS LCD display, and Apple's responsive orientation sensor allows the device to be passed and rotated without ever putting a barrier in the way of simply tapping it to use it.
Boldly going...
The iPad is first and foremost a computer with a Unix-derived OS and a decent software development kit. Apple got the ball rolling by making the iOS apps on the iPad truly large-screen friendly before piling on momentum with the Pages, Numbers and Keynote trio.
Now developers such as Omni Group and Filemaker are bringing desktop applications to the iPad, offering conceptualisation and database systems of enterprise quality while adopting the intuitive nature of the platform.
It offers a cheap and accessible platform, undercutting bespoke PC/Windows CE systems by at least half their cost, and is proving popular with an ever-expanding developer community. In an Otterbox case, it's as strong as any ruggedised PC, without the compromises that have to be made to interact with a desktop OS by finger.
This functionality points to a new future for iOS and the iPad itself. Professional applications need professional computers, yet most basic tasks are being accomplished on powerful, workstation-class hardware; the energy-efficient iPad is the fastest word processor I've used in years and one of the best browsers. It's a better netbook than any netbook has managed to be.
With the keyboard dock, it also shows potential for a new class of efficient desktop computer. The iOS is intuitive, fast and simple. Nearly all the tasks you do on your desktop can now be accomplished with the iPad and a keyboard; there's a lot to be said for this stripped-down computing experience.
The only fly in the ointment is the lack of support for Adobe's web standard, Flash - something that affects existing content more than it does new.
The strict standards of Apple's App and web support promote efficient use of resources, which are vital as we move to more mobile consumption of data. For users who demand this support, other devices exist such as the Joo Joo. It beautifully demonstrates the inefficiency of the technology by being incapable of matching the iPad's runtime.
But ultimately, Apple's iPad matches all the hype, and none of it. It's not the only tablet on the market, it's not the only usable one, and it's not the most powerful.
But it is a refreshingly simple computer that offers opportunities and possibilities other systems don't. Developers have discovered a bubble waiting to be filled with ideas; a publishing boom is happening as we speak. But at the same time, the iPad offers a chance to simplify your life by being as unobtrusive as a mobile phone.
In five years' time, we'll be comparing notes and specifications, seeing which of the alternative platforms is the best and which hardware is the fastest. However, until then, for most people, iPad is the only real choice.
Comments
The iPad is an innovative product that would be even more useful if, say, a version of it, came with a display that could be calibrated and would allow image manipulation with Lightroom in the field. For large format field photographers thinking about using digital scanners, one major deterrent is having to lug a laptop on your back with all the other equipment. If an iPad could be used instead this would be very useful. More generally, when travelling, the facility to edit images on a calibrated screen would also help streamline the workflow when using small and medium format digital cameras.
This product is NOWHERE near as useful to a photographer as an HP TC1100 Tablet PC, which is based on an eight year old design and has been out of production for some time now.
The only things that seem to have been improved in the iPad over the HP device is a far longer battery life, and the use of solid state hard drives. But the iPad battery is sealed and therefore not changeable by the user. As for the solid state drive, that's no big deal because such a drive can be added to the HP device; and more to the point, can be added by purchasing from any vendor rather than being tied to Apple.
Then we go on to docking. Well, the keyboard and docking features of the iPad are an absolute joke compared to that of the HP device.
I think folks getting all excitd about ths iPad thing as if it is the second coming of Christ, would do well to look up detailed info on the HP product and its docking features. There is an abundance of video reviews and the like on the HP product.
In fact I will go so far as to challenge any iPad fanboy out there, especially journalists writing for BJP, to meet up with me for a demo as to how much better this old HP device is compared to the over-hyped iPad, especially when one takes into account the differences in age between the two products.
DECLARATION:
I will declare an interest. I own the aforementioned HP device, and was considering moving over to the Apple platform if they introduced a Tablet device. I waited and waited, and when the iPad was released I investigated the product and was appalled. In fact, within a few minutes of the official announcement/fanfare, I went to the iPad site and had a look. It took me no more than about 30 minutes to realise that the product is not ready for showtime. I have been following reviews and the like for some time since to see if there is something I am missing, and to date I have not read or seen anything that has changed my mind.
In fact this review, is one of the best I have seen but it still doesn't impress me.
Steve: This was written, as subscribers to the print title will be aware, some time ago - and in the meantime the iPad's software availability and development (and iOS itself) has changed quite dramatically.
Whilst using an iPad to edit images (particularly the filesizes a large format camera would produce via a scanner or scanning back) is a big request for the hardware, the iPad does have more functionality as a photographer's tool now. For quick and dirty editing there's Photoshop Express (and a plethora of others) - really restricted to "special effects" or basic cropping/resizing/crude exposure adjustments, and there are some pro tools like Capture Pilot/Leaf Capture Remote as well as OnOne's DSLR Remote Pro. All of these currently require a laptop/netbook intermediary however.
The iPad's screen is surprisingly good, very close to my calibrated iMac screen (though undoubtedly miles from a proper Eizo/Nec or similar setup).
Your point about the scanners is interesting though - the USB port on the camera connector has other functions, such as MIDI connectivity and microphones. An iPad with more memory (which is almost inevitable given the proximity of the iPad 2 and the current iPhone 4's 512Mb RAM vs. 256Mb in the iPad) could probably handle a scanner.
plevyadophy: Thanks, first, for the kind words regarding the article! I do write about more products than just the iPad, including Windows/Android/other solutions, and have been enthusiastic (and enthusing) about mobile technology since... well, if I'm honest since the concept of "the Guide" first appeared in my head via the works of Douglas Adams, but more rationally since I lugged a Tandy 102 to school.
The issue with products based on Windows is user interface. The battery life and UI of the iPad make it great as a consumer product whilst it provides enough flexibility to be useful for an astounding percentage of the marketplace. Prior to this, tablets (like the HP) have been for OE customisation, vertical markets... and very limited even for hardcore geeks wanting to get the best out of any hardware. I don't personally deny the potential of any Windows tablet (or any other OS), but I DO find that potential in the world of computers means very, very little commercially. The Enterprise 128 had potential - but the Spectrum outsold it massively.
iOS is tailored for this physical interface. On Windows/Linux, a custom one has to be designed for the app, has to be tailored for the target device. 9" Windows tablets with stylus? Easy. Pen input? UI elements are too small. Little things like that. It's far from insurmountable, but the developers won't do it without a market and the consumers - well, they have their product. If Apple have shown the way forward, it's only because everyone else was dragging their heels on this.
Let's give the media some credit (I'm not asking on my behalf) and the iPad a little too, not for being first, not for being powerful, but for being the tablet computer that the wider audience actually understood and connected with. Meanwhile, Those Who Know can sit back smugly and play with our Fujitsus, our HPs and our Origami-era machines and marvel at Apple's skills in making technology accessible rather than any grass roots innovation (that's another argument).
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